12 Leaders The EconomistMarch 28th 2020
2 ber of laboratories testing for the virus from two to almost 60. It
has referred 62,000 people to health facilities. Volunteers are
distributing hundreds of thousands of food parcels to those who
cannot leave their homes. The effort is “unparalleled” in the Mid-
dle East—and even much of Europe—says an official at the who.
However, the government is doing little to stop the spread of
the virus. Malls are still open. Parks are packed. Popular shrines
have at last been closed. Nevertheless, many converged on the
holy city of Mashhad for Nowruz, the Persian new-year festival,
on March 20th. Hundreds jammed the streets of Tehran three
days later to touch the coffin of a prominent soldier. On March
25th President Hassan Rouhani at last promised travel bans be-
tween cities, but he has dismissed calls to lock down the country.
Other officials deflect blame. “A huge part of the danger Iranians
face is due to the United States,” says Muhammad Javad Zarif, the
foreign minister.
America could certainly do more to help Iran. Its offer of aid
means little as long as its sanctions remain rigid. American offi-
cials claim that the sanctions allow for the import of medical
supplies. But most trade is impossible because banks will nothandle transactions with Iran, for fear of America’s wrath. Work-
arounds set up by European countries, and even one by America,
have failed to increase the flow of covid-fighting kit.
Iran is reluctant to enforce a complete nationwide lockdown
because it does not have the money to pay people to stay at home.
If millions do not show up for work, their families will go hun-
gry. Yet despite pleas to relax sanctions, at least temporarily,
America has recently announced new ones.
That bolsters Mr Zarif’s argument that sanctions are keeping
Iran from getting the help it needs. But the foreign minister is be-
ing disingenuous: his government is also rejecting aid from Mé-
decins Sans Frontières (msf). Two planeloads of equipment sent
by the international ngohave been left on the tarmac at Imam
Khomeini airport. A team of msfdoctors was also turned away.
Perhaps they were not needed, as some officials claimed. But
state media absurdly portrayed msf’s efforts as part of an Ameri-
can spying operation. “Iran does not need hospitals established
by foreigners,” said a health official. Iran’s leaders, it seems,
prefer to confront the outside world rather than engage with it.
Their prejudice will cost Iranian lives. 7A
round theworld, coronavirus lockdowns have driven pro-
fessional and social life out of the physical world and into
the virtual realm. Though self-isolation means no longer seeing
friends and colleagues in person, it has opened a sudden and
alarming window on their private, domestic selves. Many read-
ers, videoconferencing for hours every day, will find themselves
unexpectedly familiar with other people’s kitchen layouts, wall
decorations and interior design—depending, that is, on how
they position their devices. (Never have so many ceilings been
broadcast to so many for so long.)
For those unused to working from home, the sudden disap-
pearance of boundaries between domestic and professional life
can be trying (see Bartleby). But what about the
lack of boundaries between other people’s
homes and your own? Letting crowds of col-
leagues and acquaintances peer into your life
can be unsettling, but it has one advantage: it
opens up new opportunities for oneupmanship.
Even cramped living quarters can be subtly
altered to create an impression of space. Simply
move the desk to one side of the room, the sofa
to another and the bed to a third. A lick of different-coloured
paint on all those walls, and a couple of trompe-l’oeilposters of
windows, looking out onto rolling countryside on one side and a
secluded beach on the other, and—voilà!—over the course of a
few meetings your studio flat is transformed into a mansion on
an extensive beachside estate. If you have the necessary equip-
ment and technical skills, of course, you can opt for a virtual
background instead, and appear to be hovering over the city in
your personal airship, or relaxing on your yacht.
Props can also help. If your bookshelves are visible, rearrange
the books so the titles behind your head suit the occasion. For the
intellectual soirée, the obscure Scandinavian novelist and theexistential philosopher you never quite got around to reading
will do nicely; for the professional backdrop, reach for Sun Tzu
and Nassim Nicholas Taleb; for the high-net-worth cocktail
gathering, bring out the hand-tooled leather-bound classics. Re-
member that high-definition cameras have sharp eyes: well-
thumbed copies of “The Joy of Sex” are best left out of sight.
Electronics should, by and large, be invisible, as there is an in-
verse relationship between social status and size of televisions.
High-end audio gear or home-cinema equipment, however, is
acceptable in the background, suggesting as it does a superior,
artsy approach to entertainment; steering the conversation to-
wards the merits of valve amplifiers or the “texture” of a direc-
tor’s oeuvre will let you advertise its presence in
your house. Ostentatious sports equipment—
golf clubs, skis, a Purdey shotgun—can be bor-
rowed from friends and left just visible in a cor-
ner, implying a vast hinterland of expensive en-
tertainments that are awaiting you once the
lockdown is over.
What of the risk that the sudden appearance
of screaming, chocolate-smeared children will
undermine the impression of domestic perfection? Best if you
can to hide them away in another room—“Minecraft” might keep
them occupied—or dress them smartly and persuade them to
serve you with trays of tea and biscuits or canapés, as appropri-
ate. Either approach will convey the desired impression of do-
mestic order and deference, to contrast pleasingly with the yells
and curses to be heard in the background of your friends’ and
colleagues’ homes.
Humanity is now coming together to fight a common enemy.
In these dark times, it is essential to maintain some of the pillars
of normal life—such as showing that you’re doing better than
everybody else. 7Through the keyhole
Working and entertaining online pose new challenges—and require new thinkingVideoconferencing etiquette